A preserved testimony from Thalevir’s Ancient Age
By: Messo of Setreed
Edited by: Famous Person
Before the Seven crowns were forged, the warnings were already ignored.
What do we owe to truths we recognize before others do?
When authority refuses to act, do you speak anyway?
Before the Seven Kingdoms: When the past set the future in motion
Reader Advisory: This story contains scenes of intense violence against men, women, and children. Its contents and themes are intended for mature audiences (18+). Reader discretion is advised.
Dare to Open the Fragment
Before the Seven Kingdoms Page Map
Teaser
Long before scholars recognized the modern era, they defined the history of Thalevir by the age Before the Seven Kingdoms. During this time, the continent of Orudara held a thriving, if tumultuous, civilization.
This record, Before the Seven Kingdoms, carries a punch: a spurned servant, an uprising of epic proportions, and a desperate flight across a storm-tossed sea. As a foundational account of our past, Before the Seven Kingdoms follows Messo, an Information Guild journeyman, and Catenum, a Pirate Guild chief, as they strive to save their people from a cataclysmic revolution.
Architects and Adversaries
This short story names four characters. Click to learn about each of them.
Catenum [KAH-TIN-UHM]
At ten years old, Catenum chose the sea over a broken home. He learned early that usefulness was the only currency of survival. He found his place aboard a pirate vessel, where he traded safety for a life of discipline and danger. His rise was meteoric. By sixteen he was a captain, and by thirty, he had claimed the title of Master of the Pirate Guild. Legendary for his efficiency and measured ruthlessness, he was a man military fleets avoided out of hard-learned respect. Despite his reputation, Catenum remained loyal to the afflicted and the forgotten. He intervened in famines and wars when the powerful turned away. Driven by the belief that the innocent should not pay for the failures of the elite, he joined Messo in a struggle that would define the world Before the Seven Kingdoms.
Holiana [HOH-LEE-AH-Nah]
Holiana was born into a wealthy family of Orudara, yet she refused the rigid social orders of her peers. She saw goodness in everyone, from a child in the streets to a criminal on the way to the gallows. She believed that anyone, given the right motive, could choose to sacrifice his or her life for another. Her optimism was her defining trait. Even the smallpox scars on her face seemed to brighten her presence, as her smile carried the warmth of hope chosen with intention. When her family refused to flee Catenum’s assault on Orudara, Holiana walked into the wild alone. She reached Carimpluni Bay exhausted and penniless, but her quiet courage drew Messo to her. They married months before the exodus began. While Messo entered the new world with a warning, Holiana entered it with hope. Together, they carried a vision for a future better than the one they had fled.
Messo [MEH-SOH]
Messo entered the Information Guild long before he understood its true nature. Taken from a cash-strapped orphanage at six, he was apprenticed into the lowest ranks. What was meant to be clerical drudgery became his only home. By twenty-two, Messo was one of the brightest analytic minds in Orudara. He saw structure in chaos, decoding trade patterns and political tremors with a logic that bordered on uncanny. Yet, his brilliance was matched by a “dangerous kindness.” While the Guild prized detachment, Messo felt a deep responsibility to ordinary people. When the first signs of an uprising flickered across Orudara, he recognized the pattern instantly. He understood, with a weight the Guild refused to shoulder, exactly how many lives the coming storm would claim.
Telimicus [TEH-LIHM-IH-KUS]
Born a servant to a family of immense political power, Telimicas spent his life surrounded by wasted excess. While his masters wore jeweled silks, he was reminded that his place was at the bottom, often fed only after the dogs. Forced to steal to survive, his life changed the day the mistress of the house caught him with illicit food. He struck her down with a heavy gold candlestick and fled. This single act of rebellion turned Telimicas into a folk hero. As servants disappeared and soldiers deserted, the trickle of dissent became a flood. Telimicas prepared to use that flood to cleanse Orudara, intending to strip the wealthy of their assets. Yet, his message took on a life of its own. An uprising of epic proportions was brewing, and Telimicas would soon find that the fire he started was one he could no longer control.
Further explore the world of Thalevir millennia later in The Mushkinek Uprising.
